"Wow, honey did you just get home?," Tina asked. "You’re still dressed up."

Bette smiled, "Yeah, it turned out to be a real ball, with dancing and everything, and an auction earlier."

"And you were Cinderella?," Tina teased. "You look beautiful, baby."

"Thank you, T.   Yves and Martin were appropriate Princes Charming, by the way.   Handsome in their tuxes," Bette laughed lightly, then paused, "Umm…. are you soaking in a tub at this hour?," she asked, puzzled.

Tina sighed, "Yeah … and I was just wishing you were here with me."

Even through the screen she could see Bette’s eye glaze over with a hint of desire. "Don’t get me started about what I am wishing right now," the brunette answered.

Tina gave her a slow, naughty wink, "Hmm… I don’t know. I think it may be good for me to know just what it is you are wishing for right now."

"T"

"Yeah?"

"Don’t start."

Tina smiled, "I bet it would take just one phone call from me, and you would be on the next plane over here, right?"

"T"

"I’m sorry, baby. I couldn’t help teasing you…"

Bette smiled, and mouth, "I’m crazy about you."

The brunette cocked her head to one side and asked, "So what happened earlier today? Is that what’s been keeping you up?"

Tina nodded, and then explained to her the heated discussion earlier that day in the conference room about a potential problem with the treatment her studio had just purchased.

"William will just go through the roof if I can’t find a way to resolve this," Tina concluded. "We’ve already spent far more than we ever have on a treatment, and largely on the green light I gave."

She sighed heavily.   She continued, "We’ll see tomorrow what the nameless owner of the other treatment says. If he or she is willing to negotiate with us. His or her agent was being very mysterious about this person. I mean, it took a lot of talking before I was even able to figure out that it was a person we were dealing with, and not some corporation, or studio, or something. I’m thinking at least I can reason with a person, right?" Bette nodded her head supportively.